DirXML - Removing eBusiness Boundaries

Novell Cool Solutions: Feature

A key component of Novell's One Net strategy, DirXML is Novell's outstanding data-sharing and synchronization solution for revolutionizing directory management and e-business.

DirXML provides the tools that will allow you to:

Automate business process data flows

Extend NDS synchronization, replication of business data

Benefit from event driven, real-time data flow propagation

DirXML is a data sharing service flexible enough to accommodate
any application, database, or directory. DirXML extends the data
replication and synchronization capabilities of NDS eDirectory to
other data sources, eliminating the isolation of your data among
your various applications.

As a data sharing service, DirXML and NDS eDirectory allow the
automation of your business process data flow. Through rules
and policies stored in NDS eDirectory, not only can DirXML
manage the flow of your data, but the authoritative sources of your
data are also preserved and enforced. DirXML is event driven, so
the changes to your data are propagated through your environment in real-time.

Preparing your network for e-business requires more than a flashy
Web site and a fast Internet connection: you need to ensure that the information on your network is as accurate and consistent as
possible. DirXML?, Novell's powerful data-sharing and
synchronization solution, automatically distributes new and updated
information across every designated application and directory on your
network. You can be confident that your trusted e-business
customers, partners, and suppliers are accessing consistent
iformation, regardless of which applications and directories they have access to.

Perhaps the most compelling business advantage of DirXML is that it
saves you significant amounts of money while leveraging your existing
network infrastructure. You do not have to modify or consolidate your
existing applications, directories, or databases: you simply enter
information into any designated directory and DirXML updates it
across the entire network.

DirXML is based on NDS? eDirectory?, Novell's powerful, secure directory service, and incorporates Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML is an open-standards language specification that can bridge the gap between open and proprietary applications. The end result of combining NDS eDirectory and XML is that you can publish new and updated information to every network directory that you specify, even directories housed on legacy or customized applications. For companies with hundreds of directories spread across multiple applications, this means a savings of thousands of hours and possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Burton Group provides an estimate of the management costs for a network with only seven directories and 25,000 users. Without a tool like DirXML to automatically distribute synchronized information, this network's management costs total $364,700. Using such a tool, information would have to be entered only one time, not seven: the total cost would drop to $52,100. In this scenario, the company would realize a management savings of over 85 percent. Imagine the potential for companies with over a hundred directories. Now consider the hundreds of directory changes that are made each year as employees are hired, promoted, terminated, and transferred: the more directories on your network, the greater the savings with DirXML.

DirXML can publish information to?or accept information from?any application or directory for which it has a specific driver. In its first release DirXML includes drivers for the following applications:

Lotus Notes

Microsoft Active Directory

Microsoft Exchange

NDS

Netscape LDAP

DirXML also includes a Software Developer Kit that administrators and developers can use to write C++ and Java drivers for the legacy and customized applications on their networks. Subsequent versions of DirXML will also include drivers for additional applications.

DirXML requires NDS eDirectory 8.5. It runs on an Intel Pentium PC-based server or a Sun Microsystems SPARC processor. RAM requirements vary depending on the platform you select. For more information about these requirements, please see the DirXML detailed product description. DirXML is available for NetWare? 5 (with NDS eDirectory 8.5), Windows 2000, Windows NT, and Linux on an Intel processor or for Solaris on a Sun Microsystems SPARC processor. Compaq Tru64 will be supported later in the year 2000.